Hello !
I am an adult learner or at least have resurrected my guitar after 30 years, and with a passion for it. I did used to play folk rock style in coffee houses, a few bars and other places in coconut grove and miami florida in the late 60's early 70's. Then life came along, parenting, career and so on. Now, I can start again and I am so grateful.

I've got tons of resources. The main thing that seems to get in my way is somewhat embarrassing actually. After doing many things which require discipline, I find I have difficulty establishing a regular practice schedule. Surely there must be others with this conundrum. Might I hear from you? What have you found?

So far, I have heard that if you pick up the guitar every day, that helps to stay "in the mood", and it does indeed. If you take lessons it helps to structure things and yah, it might, depending upon the instructor and oneself as well. If you do a structured home study course on the web, on CD/DVD or from a book that should structure things.

But after quite some time, I still have difficulty getting myself off the ground in a proper way. Am I afraid? Who knows?

My guitars were shelved for nearly 20 years due to the same reasons you mentioned. I wasn't good on guitar back then though, hehe.

For me, believe it or not, I get most of my inspiration from myself, in that, my successes make me want to practice more.

I have learned more in the last 7-8 months since I started back up again, than all the time prior to that combined.

If you see results, you will practice more so you can experience more good results...it's addictive to me, like a drug.

For me...any free time...means practice time. Period. And I'm retired, so that is quite often.

I always practice first (scales and chromatic patterns), then comes playtime. If you do it the other way around, you may get lost in the music and run out of time without doing the essential stuff like scales.

To me, I don't consider playing songs as practice... playing the songs for me is the reward for working hard on scales and such.

As far as ideas for you go, ask yourself this: Do you really want to be a guitar player? Do you want others around you to consider you a great guitar player?

If you answered yes, then refuse to make excuses for not practicing and just sit down and do it.

If you want inspiration or a valid reason why you are going to work hard and practice, go listen carefully to the lyrics to God gave Rock and Roll to you II by KISS. (I prefer the Alive III version.

Hi Zack Flash (great name!)
I'd somehow lost track of this forum, heard from someone they thought that Brazjazz was a name in use, googled it and found my post and your answer!

Thanks for such a thoughtful response and I agree with what you're saying here. Sorry I missed it in July and didn't respond earlier.

I have found something that really helps although perhaps might sound a bit outrageous to some. I get up at 4am and practice from 4:30 to
6:30am. (that still gets me into work early something that is great in its own way) Once that happens, it seems to do a lot of what you are relating to. Actually what it means is that I start every day as a guitar player. All right !!